The last person to exit the rift was Alan.
After seeing the children safely reunited with their parents, he made a call.
As soon as the call connected, he asked, "Did you find her?"
"She's nowhere, leader," the person on the other line answered.
Alan knitted his brows at the response he didn't want to hear.
He glanced back at the rift. In this kind of situation, 'nowhere' means unaccounted missing people were most likely dragged into a rift.
"Check the time. Did she disappear at the same time when the rift appeared?" Alan asked.
The brief silence was cut with a simple response, "Yes."
Alan ran back into the rift.
He did not stop until he arrived at the very same hollow trunk where he found the children and surveyed the area.
Sure enough, not far from where he started, he found a shoe print that was about the same size as his sister's including multiple paw prints heading away from where the children hid.
Based on that, Alan assumed his sister was currently being chased by some kind of four-legged creatures.
Alan, fueled by a sense of urgency, activated his skill to catch up to his sister as fast as he could.
Earlier, he thought it was by luck that they were able to leave the rift safely without being discovered by a single rift creature.
Thinking back now, that was his mistake.
.
.
.
Bark! Bark! Bark! Bark!
Bark! Bark! Bark! Bark!
"I should've thought this through," Lea muttered helplessly.
She looked down below at the pack of three-headed red-eyed canines scrambling to jump up on the tree she barely managed to climb on. As to how this happened, it was all because she acted impulsively.
When she was walking through the forest earlier, she caught sight of people huddling together under a hollow tree.
Relieved to find humans after only seeing trees, she was about to go over to them but was stopped by a sudden hit of lightheadedness before her vision was obscured with a haze.
The haze cleared and Lea saw ferocious red-eyed canines biting the arm and leg of a middle-aged man. Behind the man was a young woman desperately fending off the other canines with shaky hands from the children.
The vision ended as abruptly as it began.
'What was that?'
Lea rubbed her arms before steadying herself with her cane.
But unfortunately, the rift once again reminded her what a cruel and heartless place it was.
She had neither the time to compose her mind nor process what she had just seen.
Grr grr grr grr
The growling sound returned.
Her goosebumps spread throughout her whole body.
She reactivated [Eyes of an Eagle] in the direction where the growling was coming from so that she could run in the opposite direction.
To her shock or maybe not, it really was the same red-eyed canines from her vision making that intimidating noise.
Suddenly, dread filled her mind when she realised the red-eyed canines were heading straight towards the small group of people.
"The children…"
Perhaps affected by the vision she just saw, Lea made a split-second decision to prevent the tragedy from happening.
Since there was no time to warn them, she used her cane to rustle the thickets loudly.
Her action immediately caught the red-eyed canines' attention.
Mustering all her remaining strength, Lea ran in the opposite direction with the canines chasing after her.
Due to her current physical strength, she couldn't get very far and ended up cornered up to this lifeless-looking tree but at the very least, she managed to prevent the worst scenario from happening.
Bark! Bark! Bark! Bark!
'Looks like miniature Cerberus with the personality of an untrained Rottweiler.'
Since they were already three-headed dogs, let's just call them Mini Cerberus.
Lea's leisure thoughts were cut when the tree slowly started to tilt on one side because the pack of Mini Cerberus kept pressing at it without any intention of stopping.
'I don't know if I should feel offended if they think I'm some kind of delicious bone snacks.'
Rather than hopelessly waiting like some damsel in distress, Lea took action.
She climbed until she reached the top of the tree. After taking a deep breath, she pulled the tree to the side using her entire body weight with some help from gravity.
When the tree she was on swayed close enough to the closest tree, Lea used the handle of her cane to hook it to the other tree's branch.
"Seriously, what's with my luck today?" She gritted her teeth with frustration.
After a few struggles, the cane was secure. Then, she leaped without a second thought and landed successfully on the other tree.
A second later, the tree she was just on made a loud creak and…
THUMP!
…. the ground shook.
Lea quickly hugged the tree, afraid she might fall.
When the shaking stopped, she looked down to a messy sight of the Mini Cerberus crushed by the fallen tree with only a few of them managing to survive.
Before Lea could think of what to do next, a newcomer arrived at the bloody scene.
When she saw the newcomer's face, she dared to raise her voice for the first time since she was dragged into the rift, "You should've come sooner, I did most of the work."
Her words were mostly complaints.
"Lea!"
The newcomer was her brother.
"Are you hurt?"
Even faced by the few surviving Mini Cerberus who were now baring their fangs at him, Alan still checked on her.
"Can I answer that later?"
"Just stay up there, Lea. Don't come down."
Now that her brother was here, Lea sat on the tree branch with less worry for her safety.
Not keen on witnessing how her brother was going to deal with the Mini Cerberus, Lea assigned herself to look-out duty, in case the noise caused by the fallen tree attracted more Mini Cerberus their way.
Alan swiftly took care of the few surviving Mini Cerberus with the back-up short sword he always carried with him, and then proceeded to help Lea down the tree.
Once Lea was back on the ground, her brother pulled her into a hug.
Shortly after, he released her and spun her around.
"None of my bones is broken if that's what you're checking for," said Lea, slightly dizzy from being spun.
Alan exhaled in relief then motioned at the fallen tree with his head.
"Did you do that?"
"Mm-hm."
Lea nodded, which earned an impressed look from her brother.
"Not bad, Lea."
.
.
.
"Al, on your six."
"How many?"
"I counted nine heads."
Currently, they were being relentlessly chased by more Mini Cerberus. Alan zigzagged through the trees to confuse the red-eyed canines.
Lea helped with reconnaissance since that was the only thing she could do while being carried on her brother's back with all her strength exhausted.
The rift's exit was finally in Lea's line of sight, and so was the group of five people looking out of place in their uniforms.
Lea shared what she saw with Alan who then slowed down his pace but did not fully stop.
"Are they in full gear or wearing just a black vest?"
"Black vest, why?"
"Standard issue for Awakener Association's field employees."
Lea looked ahead again. This time she recognised the side profile of one person whose back had been turned before.
"That's Daniella," Lea told her brother.
The group of Awakeners turned their heads towards the Carter siblings' fast approach with no sign of stopping.
Skipping the greeting, Alan said, "I didn't think you'd get here that fast."
"My team was close by," Daniella responded.
Upon seeing Lea's dishevelled state, she asked, "How badly are you hurt?"
Before Lea could say anything, they were interrupted by one of the Awakeners.
"Ma'am, I detect multiple hostile presences coming towards us at a fast pace."
Hearing that, the Awakeners including Alan raised their vigilance except for Lea who was glancing around with [Eyes of an Eagle].
Since she had a specific target in mind, it didn't take that long for the skill to locate the hostile presence.
Lea tapped her brother's shoulder repeatedly and spoke with urgency, "I strongly suggest we all leave right now."
With no hesitation, Alan darted to the rift's exit, and Daniella who was already aware of Lea's eyesight also followed after them.
.
.
.
Out of the rift, Alan slowly let Lea down on a chair.
"No broken bones or any other severe injuries. How did you get this many scratches on your hands?"
Daniella enquired after identifying Lea's injury with just one look.
"I climbed up a tree and jumped over to another tree," Lea told her honestly.
Daniella covered Lea's hands with hers for less than five seconds before letting go.
Lea curiously looked at her hand and was astonished to see that the scratches were gone.
'A healer.'
Only a handful of people in the world have awakened as healers. Because of that, they were highly sought after by both the government and the private sectors
"Do you feel pain anywhere else?"
Daniella checked with Lea as if she didn't just do something amazing.
"No, thank you for healing my hands."
After receiving Daniella's treatment, Lea was questioned about her experience in the rift.
"The Mini Cerberus have really sharp fangs, 'bite into your bones' sharp."
Alan who had not left Lea's side, gave her a look that said, 'How do you know that?'
Lea pretended not to notice.
"Mini Cerberus?"
"Lea named the rift creature Mini Cerberus," Alan responded to Daniella's confusion.
"They're three-headed dogs with red eyes, it's an appropriate name," Lea explained the reason behind the name.
Alan added details that Lea left out, "The entire forest is most likely the Mini Cerberus's territory. We didn't encounter any other rift creature apart from them. If you're thinking of going back there then you should know that you can't shake them off once they get a hold of your scent."
"Unless you make loud noises to distract them," Lea muttered without thinking.
"Lea," Alan slowly called her name with his arms crossed. "Did you purposely let yourself be caught?"
'Oh shoot,' Lea cursed in her head for her blunder then came up with a reasonable counter to avoid telling the truth.
"You really think I can outrun the Mini Cerberus?"
Alan just kept staring at her without saying anything.
"I can't, in good conscience, forsake the children," Lea defended her action in one quick breath.
Alan's eyes softened. He didn't have the heart to scold her after hearing why she knowingly put herself in danger despite being weak herself.
"One last question," Daniella brought the conversation back to the main topic. "Why did you tell us to leave the rift quickly?"
"The pack that was chasing us brought more friends," Lea answered.
Before Daniella could press her for more details, Alan intervened, "Are we done here? I need to take my sister home to rest."
Momentarily forgetting that Lea was dragged into an ordeal while she was still recovering, Daniella let the Carters' siblings leave before the surroundings became noisier with reporters.
"Yes, we're done. Thank you both for the information."
Alan carried Lea on his back again despite her resistance.
"Al, let me down. I can walk now."
"I know you, Lea. You'll just slump down to the ground if you take another step."
He was right.
Her legs felt like jelly right now.
"The children are safely back with their parents, thanks to you, but don't ever put yourself as bait again."
Alan's praise of Lea's action ended with a light scolding.
"Sorry for making you worry," Lea mumbled. "Are you going to tell Mom and Dad about this?"
"What do you think?" Alan asked back.
"Can you not tell them the specifics?"
Lea tried asking.
"I won't tell if you agree on my condition."
Now reaching the limit of her physical and mental exhaustion, Lea was only able to utter a short, "mm", before passing out on her brother's back.
.
.
.
Lea reached her hand out to catch the rain dripping from the roof.
But when the raindrops couldn't be gathered in her open palm, she was sad.
"Come inside, it's cold out here."
Lea glanced back.
Even though this time she could see the other person's silhouette, everything around her was still obscured by the fog.
It wasn't just because of the heavy rainfall obscuring the green scenery.
"Whether it's sunny or rainy, the weather doesn't affect me in this form."
Lea detected the hint of sarcasm in her own voice.
.
.
.
[Memory Fragments Recovered 1%]